Airport Love

You might think this would be about some sappy love story in an aiport. It's not though; it's mostly just my love of airports. The funniest things happen there. I think people act out of the ordinary because a lot of them are stressed out. On last Friday, I flew down to Ontario with R. I was pretty excited about this because I feel like I never fly anywhere with anyone; I'm always flying alone. That's fine too, but it's more fun with a buddy. The first funny thing that happened was that the security line was so long that it went all the way through the usual security line area and out the airport doors into the parking garage. I left R to check in, and I went to stand in line. I was stunned when I had to go outside. I got in line ahead of two guys that were both about my age or a little older. They weren't together or anything. This was the conversation:

Nervous Guy: Have you guys ever seen anything like this before?

Other Guy: Maybe once or twice. In Phoenix.

Me: No...well, actually in DIA, and Dulles too, now that you mention it, quite a few times.

Nervous Guy: Oh, so what time are your flights at?

(It was 5:40PM at the time)

Other Guy: 6:15PM

Me: 6:05PM

Nervous Guy: (sounding sort of letdown) Oh, I see.

Nervous guy never said what time his flight was at, but I'm assuming that it was 8PM or something, since he didn't divulge his flight information. He probably just felt like a fruitcake at that point. I saw him behind security later on; R accused me of flirting. I'm just friendly though.

The other funny thing was that there was one long security line that then broke into two lines at the ticketing area. They had a security person holding back the one long line, and then each line that it broke down into had a security person. There was one woman directing it all. She would tell one gate to open up, and then move a few people from the long line to the open gate. And then she'd switch to the other when the lines moved a little. One unfortunate man had the bad luck of not paying attention when the long line gate was opened and he was supposed to move. The director woman went nuts on him.

Line Director: Sir. SIR. SIR. Quit daydreaming. Sir, you need to move now. Move, move, move. Over here sir. You need to pay attention. Move.

I just walked down the hall laughing at that one, I mean the guy was oblivious, and she was just a drill sergeant taking things a little too seriously. People must think I'm crazy.